SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— I. 399 



A return is given stating what has been done so far by the National Playing 

 Fields Association. It is noticeable that playing fields figure largely in 

 recent national appeals. 



Like many other good causes it has been private initiative that has brought 

 the subject of playing fields to the front. Town-planning authorities are 

 now well awake to the situation and they are urged in this paper not to lose 

 sight of the fact that recent clearance schemes should be carefully zoned with 

 a view to open spaces for games. Apart from facilities for games, small 

 and numerous playgrounds should be provided for children so as to safe- 

 guard them from the dangers of the streets. 



It is important to stress the great benefits accruing to the building up of 

 character in all its aspects from the playing of well ordered and disciplined 

 games ; this is of importance probably equal to, if not greater than, the de- 

 velopment of physique. 



Local authorities through their education and parks committees are 

 becoming more and more aware of the necessity for playing fields owing 

 largely to pressure put on them by playing fields societies. The Board of 

 Education is putting pressure on local authorities to provide for playing 

 fields attached to the elementary schools. 



An association called the Central Council of Recreative and Physical Train- 

 ing has recently been formed which embodies practically all the activities in 

 the kingdom which work for physical development, such as the Keep Fit 

 Movement, etc. This body has entered into an arrangement with the 

 National Playing Fields Association for joint working, and should make 

 for greater efficiency in working, as the two bodies are complementary to 

 each other. 



Mr. A. F. Dufton. — Food for thought (3.0). 



Although there is a general impression that the optimum diet is probably 

 not much in excess of the minimum, the minimum diet necessary to 

 support human life is still unknown. Attention is invited to Rumford's 

 experiments on nutrition and it is suggested that Hindhede may perhaps be 

 right in his contention that the science of nutrition as it finds favour to-day 

 is based on over-feeding. Experiments are described with a diet containing 

 32 grams of protein and providing 1300 calories and with a diet contain- 

 ing 30 grams of protein and providing 960 calories. The basal metabolic 

 rate fell to the unprecedented value of 338 calories per day. The loss of 

 heat from the human body is discussed. 



Mr. C. S. Hallpike, Prof. H. Hartridge, F.R.S., and Mr. A. F. Rawdon 

 Smith. — The phase charge effect on the cat's ear (3.30). 



If a beam of light is passed through the slots of a rotating screw disc and 

 is caused to fall on a photo-electric cell, voltages are set up which fluctuate at 

 a frequency which depends on the rate of rotation of the disc. If these 

 voltages after amplification are fed into a loud-speaker a musical tone is 

 produced. With suitably shaped slots this tone may be freed from over- 

 tones, and with a further change in the slots a change of phase of 7r in this 

 tone may be produced one or more times with each rotation of the disc. 

 When this phase-changing tone is fed into a cat's ear the Wever-Bray effect 

 records the phase change faithfully as a good telephone would do. The 

 response in the auditory tract differs, and consists of a rapid decrease of the 

 amplitude of the nerve responses to zero followed immediately by a rapid 

 increase of their amplitude to the original value. The auditory tract 



